The School of Law has brought two outstanding new clinicians on board, each eager to contribute to the law school journey with fresh insights and expertise and added a new practicum to the board.
"Central to the School of Law's ethos is the commitment to experiential learning, which equips students with the skills needed to practice law at the very highest level," said Rebecca Sharpless, associate dean for experiential learning and founding director of the Immigration Clinic. "It speaks volumes about the strength of our program that Professors Andrea Jacoski, Adrian E. Alvarez, and Evian White de Leon agreed to join us. All are leaders in their field and have a wealth of knowledge to impart to our students."
Andrea Jacoski is the incoming associate director of the Immigration Clinic, who has practiced detained removal defense since 2016. Before coming to the law school, Jacoski was the director of the detention program at Americans for Immigrant Justice in Miami, where she supervised a team of attorneys and advocates providing a combination of direct services representation, advocacy and litigation, and hotline consultation services to individuals in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement around Florida with some services to those in criminal custody subject to ICE detainers. Jacoski is a former staff attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow with the detention program, starting in 2016.
“My own law school clinical experience informed my commitment to this work,” said Jacoski. “It’s a privilege to return to this space with the tools and lessons learned from years of practice in the field.”
Miami native and triple 'Cane Adrian E. Alvarez is a supervising attorney in the School of Law's Startup Clinic, having graduated in 2007 with a B.B.A. in international finance and marketing and a J.D. and MBA in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Alvarez is a serial entrepreneur, having started the test prep company PrepSmart in 2007, the boutique law firm Adrian E. Alvarez, PL in 2012, the traffic ticket data services company SnapLeads in 2013, and his current project, InvestReady, an accredited investor & securities compliance platform, also founded in 2013. He was also the head of consulting for Security Token Advisors from early 2021 through late 2022 and continues to provide startup consulting services through his Digital Asset Securities Advisor consultancy.
General counsel practicum
The School of Law now offers a general counsel practicum in partnership with the legal department at the MIAMI Association of REALTORS®, taught by Evian White De Leon, J.D. '10, chief legal counsel to the association. White De Leon was deputy director of Miami Homes for All, Inc., an affordable housing and youth homelessness policy advocacy, research, and coalition-building nonprofit.
The practicum will build skills needed to practice as a general counsel and include contract drafting, regulatory compliance, risk management, corporate and nonprofit, alternative dispute resolution, government affairs, public policy, labor and employment issues, and strategic legal decision-making.
“On behalf of MIAMI REALTORS and our 60,000 members, we are thrilled to welcome the inaugural class of the general counsel practicum,” said White De Leon. “Personally, the opportunity to return to UM Law as an adjunct professor and to contribute to the legal education of the next generation of lawyers is a privilege.”
The practicum allows a limited number of students to be placed with the largest local Realtor association in the United States, and the second largest in the world.
"These exciting developments in our experiential program underscore the school's dedication to providing practical, real-world legal education and adapting to the evolving legal landscape," said Sharpless.
Read more about Miami Law’s clinics.
